Shakers

[Lucifa]

How the fuck do you get them sounding authentic?

Varying the velocity with swing is a given, but other than that, what else?

[baseband]

use a recorded shaker?

[Bedup]

Link a pic of your shaker instrument.
my shaker sounds perfect

[Darj]

For most of my shakers, I use only one sample in a track, adding la light LFO on volume and on pitch. Retrig off of course, synced 1/1 or 1/2. You can add a light track delay on it to make it a bit less " machine ".
Example here :
Soundcloud ( around 1:20 )

Most of my shaker lines are on 1/16 or 1/12, to make it sound a bit more groovy, remove 1 or 2 shaker's shot each bar, on different position each. Repeat it on a 8 or 16 bar loop.

I hope it's understandable, really need to practice my english

[Lucifa]

Nah your English is fine mate, made perfect sense. I'll give it a go when I get back, nice one.

Link a pic of your shaker instrument.
my shaker sounds perfect

what?

[Electric_Head]

Nah your English is fine mate, made perfect sense. I'll give it a go when I get back, nice one.

Link a pic of your shaker instrument.
my shaker sounds perfect

what?

scary stuff thinking about using real shakers

[Lucifa]

Oh I dont didn't realise everyone had a drum kit and recorded every single piece of percussion.

[Electric_Head]

Oh I dont didn't realise everyone had a drum kit and recorded every single piece of percussion.

come on dude, it was a joke

[Bedup]

LOL.
thought that you are recording a shaker instrument
that line confused me :

Varying the velocity with swing is a given, but other than that, what else?

[bassinine]

love shakers. just buy one and record it... they cost like $3.

on that note, i need to buy a shaker.

[Darj]

Basicly, here's what I do on Ableton to make my hats :


And there is a very simple pattern, mixing hats and a shaker. Maybe it would help you

This shaker and this pattern where used on this track Soundcloud


As you can see, that's a really simple pattern, but you can use 2 or 3 differents shakers to make it a bit more complex.

[Triphosphate]

My favorite trick for varying a straight 16 beat with shakers or hats would be making an insert with 2 breakbeats layered that are not going to be used in the actual song, then sidechain compressing the shaker channel slightly with the combined breakbeat insert as the sidechain input. Then bounce out the shaker track and viola, lots of movement.

[press]

good shakers is one thing i look for loops for, i to just cant get them sounding right otherwise. but one tip for loops or self sequenced shakers that sound to errrr boring i guess, is one Kryptic Minds gave in that masterclass vid, a lil sidechain/ducking action with the kicks and/or snare can help get it groovin.

[Triphosphate]

good shakers is one thing i look for loops for, i to just cant get them sounding right otherwise. but one tip for loops or self sequenced shakers that sound to errrr boring i guess, is one Kryptic Minds gave in that masterclass vid, a lil sidechain/ducking action with the kicks and/or snare can help get it groovin.

Yesss. Kryptic Minds is exactly where I got the idea for sidechaining with other beats. I've gotten some really cool results using beats that don't exist in the actual song I'm making.

[Fingerflexor]

I usually add swing and/or mess with the velocity. I usually have a few different alternating shaker/hats going panned at different spots

[press]

good shakers is one thing i look for loops for, i to just cant get them sounding right otherwise. but one tip for loops or self sequenced shakers that sound to errrr boring i guess, is one Kryptic Minds gave in that masterclass vid, a lil sidechain/ducking action with the kicks and/or snare can help get it groovin.

Yesss. Kryptic Minds is exactly where I got the idea for sidechaining with other beats. I've gotten some really cool results using beats that don't exist in the actual song I'm making.

yeah took me awhile to spit my reply out but had i seen yours i probably would have quoted it, great technique, ill try using "phantom" triggers for the sidechain, sounds like a great idea!

[lloydy]

good shakers is one thing i look for loops for, i to just cant get them sounding right otherwise. but one tip for loops or self sequenced shakers that sound to errrr boring i guess, is one Kryptic Minds gave in that masterclass vid, a lil sidechain/ducking action with the kicks and/or snare can help get it groovin.

I use this technique and also change the attack of some of the shakers aswell as velocity,if i use audio instead of midi i use really short fades at the beginning of odd regions here and there then mix this with sidechain compression it adds a lot more interest.
In logic if you use audio you can change the amplitude of a region in the sample editor so to be honest i rarely use mid when making shaker loops because audio in logic is just as capable.

[Mad_EP]

While I know that obviously recording one's own entire drum kit isn't necessarily plausible... there's no excuse for not recording your own shakers.


1) you don't need to buy a shaker - homemade ones have way more flavor. Empty plastic aspirin container and some rice - done. maybe a larger plastic receptacle and some small pebbles... or frozen peas... the possibilities are endless.

2) you don't need a great microphone either... you can get some ill sounding shaker recordings using a phone or built-in laptop mic or whatever.

3) you can still use samples - but if you layer them with your own sounds, you will develop a more distinct sound.

[AxeD]

There's 1378 shaker samples to download.

[alphacat]

You can make shakers from shit in your kitchen.

In fact, you can use existing stuff there as shakers... box of oatmeal, jar of spices, cup with some seeds or pasta, etc.

And you'd be surprised at how good certain combinations sound...